Noted Brazilian Social Activist to Attend Play's Premiere

Date: 11/13/06
Contact: Marc Lebovitz

Acclaimed Brazilian social activist Yvonne Bezerra de Mello will conclude her jam-packed week-long, multicultural, interdepartmental visit at Illinois State University this month with a truly unique experience. She will attend the world premiere of a play whose subject is very close to her heart: the poor, victimized street children of Brazil.

de Mello will travel to Normal from Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 26 and at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27, will join the general public at the Normal Theatre for a viewing of "Warrior of Light," the 2001 documentary on her work in Rio. The week will be capped at 7:30 Friday, Dec. 1, in Westhoff Theatre with the world premiere of "Hopeless Spinning," a play about Rio de Janeiro's street children. A reception will follow, and de Mello will return to Rio de Janeiro on Dec. 2.

The play, written by ISU graduate Margaret E. Iha, an American College Theatre Festival award recipient last year, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1, 2 and 6 through 8, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, in Westhoff Theatre. Iha is a master's degree graduate in Politics and Government.

de Mello, a woman of great wealth and position in Rio de Janeiro who was educated at the Sorbonne, had always helped those less privileged (reading to blind children when she was 13, working with rape victims and helping start daycare centers for very poor children). But following the 1993 murders of eight street children by Brazilian secret police, she founded "Children of Light" project to help educate and protect street children in Rio.

Among the theatergoers in Westhoff Theatre on opening night will be Stacey Evans, director of Students Helping Street Kids International. The 10-year-old non-profit group, which raises funds to help needy children in developing countries, was established by Oregon middle school counselor Bob Crites after he read an article about de Mello's work. Crites had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil.

de Mello's visit will be broadly interdepartmental because among the academic departments and other programs involved in her visit are Theatre, Sociology and Anthropology, Politics and Government, Family and Consumer Sciences, Social Work, the College of Fine Arts, College of Art and Sciences, College of Education, the Women's and Gender Studies Program, Stevenson Center for the Community and Economic Development, Honors Program, Diversity Education Committee, Latin American Studies, The Women's Project, Design Streak and Friends of the Arts. Also among sponsors are the Town of Normal and Marge and Barry Weaver.

Following the Nov. 27 screening of "Warrior of Light" at the Normal Theatre, de Mello will participate in a question and answer session. On Nov. 28, 29 and 30, she will participate in colloquia, meetings and discussions with different groups on campus. At 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, she will speak and answer questions about her life and experiences with students, faculty-staff and the public in the Center for the Performing Arts Theatre.

The combination of Brazil's emerging drug culture and greater availability of guns in the 1990s, along with secretive death squads and corrupt policemen and officials, led to increased victimization of Brazil's children. According to Brazil's National Movement of Street Children, four to five adolescents are murdered daily, and every 12 minutes a child is beaten. It is estimated that 4.5 million children under 12 in Brazil are working and that 500,000 children are engaged in domestic labour. Forty percent of all crimes include children as the victims.